senator mitchell, you more or less have been in john boehner's shoes. you were a congressional leader hammering out a tax and spending cut deal with the president of the opposing party. how is what we're seeing now different than what you experienced two decades ago? >> it's similar in terms of the issues, the positions of the parties have been that way for a long time. it's different in several respects. first, when i was there, it was the president who had made the no tax pledge. president bush the first, as you'll recall, made a very famous no tax pledge which he eventually backed off of. in this case, it's the congress. the republicans of the congress specifically, who have made the tax pledge, and the president who is trying to get them to break it. secondly, the numbers are very much reflecting the passage of time. we were very concerned because we thought the budget was going to be -- the deficit was going to be about $150 billion. that shocked everyone into action. then, unlike now, there remains some degree of bipartisanship. there was comity,